Coastal Bohemian: November 2023

Thursday, November 30, 2023

Christmas Cards and Class at Coastal Bohemian

Happy Holidays Friends

I wanted to share some fun things we have been doing down at the studio.

First of all, these Christmas cards are adorable. They are fairly easy to make and I hope they inspire you to make some as well. We, myself for the samples and my students made these cards using card blanks. You can pick up packs of blanks at craft stores and online. You can also make these from card stock as well. I did see cardstock on sale at Sam's club recently at a very good price.

If you love mermaids you'll get a kick out of this card. I used a mermaid tail silhouette as a template. You'll need to download a template online and size it to your card. From there it's easy to design something unique. You'll need a background paper, in my case an old book page. Apply that to your card base. Next trace and cut your mermaid tail on a piece of scrapbook paper that appeals to you. These are easy to add to the card using a glue stick. Additionally , I applied and smudged red oil pastel around the tail to give it a little star power. I had the Merry Christmas sentiment in my scrapbook stash.

This card has watercolor paper inset. I cut the watercolor paper to the display size I like . Next, I add a swish of color to the watercolor paper. Then I pencil traced a silhouette of a fish. Using a fine line marker I traced around the fish to bring the image front and center but then I added a second tracing in pen in a more loose fashion. This is so easy to do. Just hold your marker a little more loose in your hand. You can practice on scrap first. It seems to add another dimension to the project. Then I just glued it to my card, but this time I used a tape runner.

So this card is not for everyone and honestly this is not my favorite but there are elements that I love in this card. This is really more along the line of mixed media art, which I love. The idea behind this is to create a dramatic background of layers of paint, stamps, stencils and swirls using, markers, paints, paint pens and inks.

Then you start with a cardboard silhouette of a tree. Add layers of torn paper to cover the image, trim the edges and apply to the card. I used vintage paper which had been tinted using several different green watercolors. Mind you this paper was colored and dry before I began the tearing and gluing process. Apply your tree with a tape runner and add some embellishment to the top.

So easy ... Mermaid tail silhouette, pencil trace, draw in the holiday lights, fill in the blank space with watercolor. Outline in black marker. Oh, and add a fun sentiment

This guy is my favorite. He has sooo much personality. Same silhouette as above except this time trace and cut from a pretty holiday paper. The background is not watercolor paper but the actual card, so it got a swish of color. When it was dry, I use glue stick to add my happy little fish. The eye was added using the bottom of a marker dipped in stamp ink and applied to the paper. Then I trace over the eye too. I can't draw a perfect circle.

Here's what happened in class.

She brought in these Grinchy tags from Target. A pop of Grinchiness color stencilled on the background and a beautiful piece of scrapbook paper added to the Grinch tag to help him stand out.

Another Christmas tree silhouette and a stamped holly background and some swishy watercolor paper.

The combination of this yellow and the hot pink is gorgeous.

Considering this is Coastal Bohemian , it should come as no surprise to you that we used sand and glitter to give this card it's pizazz. That was all Charlene.

This was a little stamped background on the card and an embossed snowman. I used Posca paint pens to add a little color to the berries.

And, I added this glitter snow, that I am in love with....from Dollar Tree. Go get it now. You can use it for G L I T T E R ALL YEAR LONG!!!! I used a fine paint brush to add dots of glue and spinkled my glitter.

He is dimensional on the card. I stamped and heat embossed him on white cardstock . Then trimmed and applied foam mounting tape to apply him to the card.

This was all lots of fun and with some Christmas music playing along we enjoyed the process.

Hoping this encourages you to make some holiday cards.

Here are a few silhouettes I found on Pinterest.